Flood Inundation Mapping of the Hitachi Region in the Kuji River Basin, Japan, During the October 11–13, 2019 Extreme Rain Event

Abstract

The frequency of severe flood events has been increasing recently in Japan. One of the latest events occurred in October 2019 and caused extensive damage in several river basins, especially in the central and northern regions of the country. In this study, we selected the Hitachi region (Hitachi-Omiya and Hitachi-Ota) within the Kuji River Basin which underwent considerable flooding due to the failure of embankments at two locations in the region. Maximum-possible flood inundation maps were generated using survey-based data and hydrological modeling for the Hitachi region. These maps incorporated the flood scenarios (embankment failures). All the generated products were compared with the reference flood mapping, i.e., Sentinel-1 data and Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) data for that region. It was observed that generated flood inundation mapping product based on the survey-data yielded results similar to those obtained with GSI data for the Hitachi region. Although each flood mapping product has advantages and disadvantages, they can be a good reference for the proper management and mitigation of flood disaster in the future. The rapid development of flood inundation mapping products that consider varying flood scenarios is an important part of flood mitigation strategies.